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Hickoryworks
Hickory Syrup and purchase some of this fantastic and
tasty Hickory Syrup.

The World's Original and Only Hickory Syrup

Shagbark Hickory Tree

You’ve heard of maple syrup, but
have you also heard of Hickory Syrup? I hadn’t heard of it until I found
this wonderful Hickory Syrup made by Gordon Jones and Sharon Yarling. With the help of a
mysterious recipe dating back at least 200 years, they found a secret in the
trees growing on their rolling 54 acres in Trafalgar, 35 miles south of
Indianapolis.

How did this unique recipe come about? A
chance roadside encounter with a mysterious stranger. While Gordon and
Sherrie were working up downed trees on their land, an old man pulled up and
asked if he could buy some firewood. Noticing a shagbark hickory tree
nearby, the man told Gordon of a unique syrup his great, great grandmother
made from the bark of such trees. Striking a deal with this man to give him
free firewood, he reappeared a few weeks later with the tattered recipe on
yellowed parchment, a piece of paper Gordon and Sherrie protect like gold
today since they are the only two who fully know its contents. "It makes me feel a little like Colonel Sanders with a
secret recipe,"Gordon says with a smile. Today, the only written
documentation of shagbark hickory syrup is the yellowed parchment
supplied by the then-96-year-old man. Jones and Yarling know neither
the man’s name nor whether he’s still alive, but they protect the
paper like gold. "It makes me feel a little like
Colonel Sanders," Jones said. "That’s the secret behind our success.

The husband and wife, following a
ritual whose roots likely trace to American Indians who inhabited
the area, have become one of the world’s few, if not only,
manufacturers of shagbark hickory syrup. Unlike maple syrup, shagbark hickory
syrup isn’t made from tree sap. It is a sugar syrup flavored with
extract from bark of the shagbark hickory tree. "We’re not exactly sure where the
extract comes from. We think it comes from right here," said Jones,
pointing to a thin lining on the bark’s underside.

Jones and Yarling found that by
rendering a mysterious extract from the bark of trees native only to
Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan, they have been able to produce a
syrup craved by white-tablecloth restaurants from San Francisco to
New York.

Jones and Yarling are Hickoryworks’
only employees, but the demand for the syrup has far outstripped the
supply of trees they have on their land. Yarling emphasizes that the
trees are not harmed and the bark grows back. The duo now pays suppliers to bring them all the bark they can haul, which is
dumped behind Jones’ and Yarling’s secluded home. Attached to the
home is a special room where the bark is cleaned by hand. It is then
heated in what Jones calls a combination between a wok and pressure
cooker to render the extract, which is cooled and aged, Jones said,
"like fine wine." The
whole process takes about three and a half weeks.

There’s no mystery to why some of the
area’s finest restaurants began ordering the syrup in increasing
numbers in the early 1990s. Chefs said they use the syrup in
almost anything calling for sugar or maple syrup. It’s used in
glazes over beef, pork, chicken or fish. It’s also used as a drink
mixer; in salad dressings; as an ingredient in cakes, cookies and
brownies; or straight over ice cream and pancakes.

"It’s one of the
most unique things I’ve ever tasted," . "It has an earthy, smoky flavor without the
maple kick. Once I tasted it and tested it, I found its applications
are almost boundless." - Tim Mally, Executive Chef at Ye
Olde Library Restaurant in Carmel

"I like to mix it
with bourbon as a marinade for ribs."-
Julie Child

"Its uses for me just keep expanding,"- Todd Harmon, executive chef at The Twin-V Cafe on the north
side.